TIMELINE
THE HISTORY OF
VERO BEACH
12,000 B.C. — Signs of the region’s
earliest human habitation are traced to the
Ice Age after a skull is discovered in 1915
in Vero but is misplaced before carbon
dating is conducted.
2000 B.C. — The
region from Cape
Canaveral to
St. Lucie Inlet is
inhabited by native
Americans known
as the Ais, people
who lived in towns
consisting of small
collections of
huts framed with
sticks or wood and
covered on the
sides by palm fronds.
1696 — Jonathan Dickinson and his
party are shipwrecked at Jupiter Island.
By Dickinson’s account the chief of the Ais
town of Jece, near present day Vero Beach,
was supreme among all others. Disease,
slavery and warfare eliminate the Ais by
1760. Some archaeologists locate the
town of Jece on Barker’s Bluff near what
is known today as Pelican Island National
Wildlife Refuge.
1715 — A Spanish
treasure fleet wrecks
off the coast. Pirates
scour the coast.
1700s — Bands of Creek
Indians who would later be known as the
Seminoles begin seasonally migrating to
Florida from Creek towns in Georgia and
Alabama.
1868 —August Park, a German immigrant,
and his family arrive and begin living
on Barker’s Bluff. The area grows to five
households by 1880.
14
1876 — The First House of Refuge in
Florida is built at Bethel Creek by the U.S.
Lifesaving Service. John Houston, an early
pioneer, is its first keeper.
1881 — Gottlob Kroegel begins living in
Barker’s Bluff, builds a house and plants an
orange grove and vegetable crops.
1887 — Henry Gifford,
wife Sarah, and three
children arrive from
Randolph, Vermont.
1888 — The Giffords
build a house on the
mainland that will also
become a mercantile
and post office.
1891 — Gifford applies
for permission to
establish a post office
and becomes its first
postmaster. His wife
reportedly suggests
that the post office be
named Vero, which in
Latin means “to speak
the truth.’’
1893 — Henry Flagler’s railroad tracks
reach Vero, with trains providing farming
and building supplies to make Florida’s
wilderness more habitable.
City of Vero Beach 1919-2019 VeroBeach100.org
1896 — William S. Brown, a black settler
from Savannah, Ga., receives a federal
homestead for 60 acres. The settlement
that grows around his farm becomes
known in 1900 as Gifford, after Vero’s first
postmaster.
1903 —Florida East Coast Railway opens a
station in Vero.
1911 — Herman
Zeuch, after three
years of planning and
12 trips to Florida,
begins to buy land
for citrus growing
and development.
He initially purchases
48,000 acres outside
Vero and begins
draining the land.
1912 — In September, Zeuch forms the
Indian River Farms Co. and hires William
H. Kimball of Iowa, a civil engineer, to
continue draining the land. His assistant
was Col. R. D. Carter. The final plat of
the original Town of Vero is adopted in
1913. They name the streets after Native
Americans.
1913 — Waldo Sexton
arrives and over the
next four decades
builds landmarks such
as the Ocean Grill
and Patio restaurants,
Driftwood Inn and
McKee Jungle Gardens.
1919 —The
Florida Legislature
incorporates Vero on
June 10. The town’s first newspaper, the
Vero Beach Press, publishes in September.
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INDIAN RIVER MAGAZINE
The Ais, who looked similar
in appearance to this
painting, inhabited the
region, including what is
now Vero Beach, when the
first Europeans arrived.
Henry Gifford
Herman Zeuch
Waldo Sexton
helped give Vero
Beach an eclectic
personality.
Sarah Gifford
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Barker’s Bluff was a shell midden near what is
today the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.
VANDIVEER COLLECTION, ARCHIVE CENTER, IRC MAIN LIBRARY
The House of Refuge at Bethel Creek was built as a
haven for shipwrecked mariners.
CHRISTINA TASCON
Vero’s first train station was built in 1903.
SMITH POST CARD COLLECTION, ARCHIVE CENTER, IRC MAIN LIBRARY
Rail transportation arrived in Vero in 1893.
/VeroBeach100.org